Installing Xbox 360 games: Is it worth it?

Microsoft really rolled the dice with the introduction of the NXE. Taking an interface that many gamers had become familiar with and fond of, and turning it on its head was a gamble it could have easily lost. Thankfully, it decided to pack a bunch of awesome new functionality into the Xbox 360's makeover, sweetening the deal for every gamer who lays hands upon it. One of those new bits of functionawesomenss is the ability to load games straight to the Xbox 360's hard disk. 

There have been a number of theories as to why this feature was added, from the noise reduction it assists in to a cure for the "Red Ring of Death" (general hardware failure) that has become a sticking point of owning the console, but one thing is undeniable; it works damn slick. The typical installation goes a little something like this: Place disc in drive, press Y button on “Play Game” section, select “Install game to hard drive”, and wait. Depending on the game, your install will take somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes. Still, it doesn’t matter how smooth the installation process goes if the benefits aren’t there to be had, which begs the age-old question – Is it worth it? That’s what we’re here to figure out, so join us, won’t you?

There’s a combination of things you’re going to need to consider when making the “should I install?” decision. First, and certainly most important, is if you’re really going to play said game enough to make the install worthwhile. If you’re renting the title, skip it. However, if you’ve got a Square-Enix RPG on your hands, or a shooter with a vast online multiplayer component, you’ll probably be glad you spent the time on an install when you’re playing your 50th hour. 

The second factor is space. Xbox 360s are shipping with bigger (60 GB) and bigger (120 GB) hard drives these days but that doesn’t mean you have all the space in the world to waste. A game install will take anywhere from four to more than ten gigabytes of space from you, so if you’re stuck with an early-generation 20 GB, or even a newer 60 GB drive, you’ll soon realize that space is at a premium. 

Now that we're past those two preliminary factors, you might be wondering what kind of benefits you'll see from the install should you decide to commit. First we'll look at load times. Just like all games consoles, the Xbox 360 loads information from a disc into its memory and then streams more and more information as needed while you're busy blowing the heads off aliens without a care in the world. Installing a game to your hard drive gives the console a bit of a break by keeping all the necessary information close at hand. This cuts down on the time it takes for the disc to spin up to speed as well as the seconds needed for the console to suck the information off the disc.

To give you the best idea of the load time benefits you’ll be seeing, we’ve taken three of the hottest titles of the later part of 2008 and put them on the racks. We’ve timed how long the load times set you back in various parts of the games both with and without the game installed on our Xbox 360's hard drive. The three titles we’ll be looking at today are Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, and Mirror’s Edge. 

The honor of our first test goes to Gears of War 2:

• Initial load
  • Without Install - 32.21s
  • With Install - 26.28s
• Training Ground
  • Without Install - 10.05s
  • With Install - 9.32s
• Act I / Chapter II
  • Without Install - 18.60s
  • With Install - 16.74s
• Act II / Chapter II
  • Without Install - 18.13s
  • With Install - 16.74s
• Act III / Chapter II
  • Without Install - 32.69
  • With Install - 29.30

As you can see, the numbers aren't all that impressive. Saving a few seconds here and there on load times, while pleasant, may not be reason enough to spend the seven gigabytes on the installation. However, this is where the multiplayer component of the game has to come into consideration. If you're planning on dedicating some serious time to online play, it puts a very big + in the install column. Keeping your console quiet during hours and hours of multiplayer fragging is something that just might make this option worth your while. 

Round 2, Call of Duty: World at War reporting for, um, duty!

• Initial load
  • Without Install - 16.34s
  • With Install - 12.89s
• Multiplayer map loading (average)
  • Without Install - 11.35s
  • With Install - 11.16s
• Single Player / Mission 1 Semper Fi
  • Without Install - 15.44s
  • With Install - 11.58s

As with Gears 2, only the most minor of gains is seen with loading, regardless of mode. But, again similarly toGears 2, the online component of this title is sure to have you spending many an hour in front of your TV. This might be a game to consider installing.

Round 3, Mirror's Edge shows us some big gains.

• Initial load
  • Without Install - 34.04s
  • With Install - 26.65s
• Chapter 1
  • Without Install - 30.92s
  • With Install - 16.33s
• Chapter 2
  • Without Install - 22.53s
  • With Install - 13.68s

With some the biggest load time advantages of the bunch, Mirror's Edge seems like it's practically made for installation. Saving you up to 15 seconds per load is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but this advantage comes with an asterisk -- for most folks the game is a one play-through experience. Dashing through the story mode will be enough to satisfy most players, with only a dedicated few turning to the Time Trial mode for extended enjoyment. This leaves some folks installing the game, only to remove it a couple of weekends later.

The last, and most overlooked, factor of installing a game onto your hard drive is the stress it takes off of the console itself while you're enjoying your game. Obviously, if the console has all the information at hand it doesn't need to spend the energy on disc processes to keep doing what it does. With the Xbox 360's history of hardware failure, this is a major advantage to installing your games. If spending 10 minutes installing a game will add an extra year to the life of your console, it seems like a no-brainer, but there's no way to know for sure if it actually does.

So in the end, the decision to install really is a simple one: If it's a game you love and you've got the space to spare, why not save your ears the noise, and save your Xbox the stress, and commit to an install? Your system might thank you.